“I saw a bunch of videos. Whether it was the street party or people at their houses, watch parties. It was pretty cool,” said Perfetti after the morning skate.
“I also saw some videos of St. Louis fans, wasn’t as cool for them. I got a chuckle out of that. It’s cool to see that support, people love the Jets here, this city bleeds hockey. So, it’s cool to see those reactions and to see how excited everyone was.”
The best part for Perfetti is that his parents, Sandra and Angelo and his grandpa were in the building for two huge moments in franchise history. The Perfetti’s were amongst the majority of fans that stood for both overtimes.
“They said their feet were sore after. They were standing for a long time, but they said the atmosphere was amazing,” said Perfetti.
“They said it was one of the coolest things in their lives. Just to see the atmosphere, to see the building, to see the whiteout. But also, in the fashion that it went, they were pretty excited. They had a really good time, so I was glad that some family was here to experience that and to be here to celebrate that.”
After all that energy and emotion that came from the storybook finish to Game 7, Perfetti and the Jets have to come out of the clouds and do it all over again, this time against the Dallas Stars.
“Tough to sleep that night but at the same time, yeah, it’s kind of hard to put that in the past and we’re on to the next round,” said Perfetti.
“Dallas, we are very familiar with them. They’re a really good team, we know what we have to do to prepare for them. So, try to put that in the rearview mirror and onto the next game and get prepared for the series.”
The consistent message from the coaching staff and the leadership group is good or bad, we are onto the next game. It sounds so easy, and the Jets have done a great job of practicing what they preach, but it can’t be that easy after what happened on Sunday.
“It’s not easy. It’s not easy, we’re coming off an emotional high. We’re coming off two goal comeback with two minutes left with our season on the line. A double overtime Game 7 win,” said Perfetti.
“The emotion there is so high, it is hard to come down from that. But at the same time, our group, our motto is onto the next one and we’re getting through the first round is just one step along the way to our main goal. So, we have our eyes on the big picture here and that’s our end goal.”
